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Colonial Islam

To understand the imperial project in the Muslim world, one needs to revisit the British colonization of Egypt.

Everlyn Baring, better known as Lord Cromer, was the British Proconsul-General in occupied Egypt between 1877 and 1907. He wrote about his tenure in his book “Modern Egypt” (1916). Here are some conclusions from his book:

1. The West will not tolerate an Islamic government.

On page 565, he said that it would be “absurd” to assume that Europe would tolerate a “government based on purely Mohammedan principles and obsolete Oriental ideas.”

2. Muslims must be forced to adopt the principles of Western civilization.

On page 538, he said that Egypt had to be “forced into imbibing the true spirit of Western civilization.”

3. Westernization must be introduced under the guise of women’s rights.

Lord Cromer says that the “position of women” in Muslim countries was a “fatal obstacle” in the introduction of colonial values. (page 539)

4. The West must educate a class of young secular Muslims to be the rulers.

Cromer’s hope was that a Europeanized education system would cause an Egyptian to “lose his Islamism”, cause him to “no longer believe that he is always in the presence of his Creator”, and only hang onto “the least worthy portions of his nominal religion” for the sake of convenience. (page 230)

5. The West must reform Islam.

Cromer says that the goal should be to create “de-moslemized Moslems”, where people are Muslims-by-name, but in actuality, are “agnostic”. After all, Cromer says, “Islam cannot be reformed … reformed Islam is Islam no longer.” (pages 228-229)

6. The Muslim reformer would hate Muslim scholarship more than Europeans do.

The Westernized Muslim would consider the `alim to be a “social derelict”, use him in matters of convenience, but otherwise disrespect him. On the other hand, a European Christian intellectual would at least look at the `alim with sympathy and respect, as a “representative of an ancient faith”. (page 299-30)

7. Modernized Muslims will become Deists.

“It is conceivable that, as time goes on, the Moslems will develop a religion, possibly a pure Deism, which will not be altogether the Islamism of the past and of the present, and which will cast aside much of the teaching of Mohammed, but which will establish a moral code sufficient to hold society together by bonds other than those of unalloyed self-interest.” (page 234)

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We can see therefore that Islamic reform started as a colonial project. A project that has been devilishly designed by European intellectuals to undermine the clerics, introduce secular humanist institutions, and gradually and inconspicuously lead Muslims away from the central tenets of their tradition. They knew that this reformed, liberal Muslim would not be a Muslim at all, but just a Europeanized invertebrate (i.e. a spineless being) who would maneuver the religion to his needs.

This seven-step process is *exactly* what is happening to Muslim youth all over the world. They volunteer themselves to secular academia and pop culture, and are led away from a truly Islamic worldview and epistemology. And while they fool themselves into calling themselves “Muslim reformers”, or “moderate Muslims”, or “liberal Muslims”, their puppet masters know that these are all contradictions in terms.